Divine Chocolate

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Company Description

Divine Chocolate sells Fair Trade chocolate bars.

Divine was the first mass-market Fair Trade chocolate bar in the United Kingdom. They source only Fair Trade ingredients whenever possible, and do not use environmentally costly palm oil in any of their products. Because Divine’s farmers are also part owners of the company, they have been able to have an outsize effect in cocoa growing Ghanaian communities, including several infrastructure and education initiatives. Above and beyond this economic benefit, Divine invests 2% of their annual revenues into a Producer Support and Development fund co-managed by NGO partners. Programs supported by the fund focus on the empowerment of women, maintaining good governance, and testing different farming techniques – and include an adult literacy and numeracy program, and a model farm project.

Divine was co-founded by Kuapa Kokoo, a Fair Trade cooperative of small-scale Ghanaian cocoa farmers along with Western entrepreneurial investors. Kuapa Kokoo has over 65,000 members, and is still the largest owner of Divine, with two dedicated seats on the board. Through this relationship, the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo have an all-too-rare opportunity to have their voices heard on how their product will be used and sold.